Jan 19, 2014
Educating ourselves, our clients and others is a major focus at
Green Acres, especially when it comes to refuting the many
erroneous myths about dogs and training.
One of the most harmful myths is that in order to train a dog the
owner must show their dominance by being assertive, having a deep
booming voice and making the dog do their bidding.
This in turn has led to the attitude that we should NEVER reward
the dog with food because the dog should always do what we want
just to please us. Praise alone should be a sufficient reward.
So how motivated would you be if at the end of your day your only
reward was praise from your boss? I suspect you'd be looking for a
new job tomorrow.
All dogs are food motivated - they MUST eat to survive. When food
is used properly as a reward it works better than either praise or
touch for training. That's not a myth, it's a fact proven by
science.